Lead Nurturing – Uncover a Gold Mine of Opportunity

Nurture is very simple word that means to supply with nourishment. Today, lead nurturing is immensely popular with marketers because it is a simple yet extremely powerful marketing automation software. Lead nurturing programs can be compared to a garden that will produce a good harvest only if tended well. Similarly it is not enough to just generate leads, it is important to nurture them to be converted into customers.

Organizations spend huge amounts of money marketing their products sending mailers, email and invitations to webinars or advertising heavily on TV and radio. The leads generated by this exercise are passed on to the sales team. As sales are responsible for generating revenue for the quarter, they tend to ignore the prospects that are not hot – thus sales teams ignores almost 80% of leads generated by marketing. That is 80% of the budget going to waste.

This gap between sales and marketing teams is the biggest challenge faced by B2B enterprises. Once the lead is handed to the sales team, the marketing team no longer follows up on these leads as they have already been handed over to sales. Hence it makes more sense for marketing to pass on only the qualified leads to sales. This is whereLead nurturing programs comes in.

Lead nurturing in the B2B space is the process of building long term trusted relationships with qualified prospects irrespective of whether they are interested or not, through a consistent dialog throughout the sales lifecycle. Thus we can say lead nurturing is a process that converts inquiries into leads and leads into sales.

Remember 75% of these unqualified prospects will eventually buy from you or your competitor. Yes, there are some who may be unqualified; those should be siphoned out of the system immediately. The rest we should care about and focus on. Lead nurturing best practices helps keep your finger on the pulse of those undeveloped prospects.

According to Forrester Research, companies that excel at lead nurturing are able to generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost-per-lead.

Build a Relationship

Lead nurturing is used to build bridges and inspire trust between the lead and yourself. It helps you to provide valuable education and information about the product to the lead up front, in the form of letters, emails, case studies, white papers, articles, webinars and success stories.

By using this kind of lead nurturing campaign you relate with your prospect better and get deeper insights into their buying intent. Once you have built that trust you are looked upon as an expert. You don't sell; you only provide information and solutions. You space out your campaign depending on the lead time. You ultimately benefit from more and higher quality sales leads and increased conversion rates with an increased bottom line.

Thus if lead nurturing is done right fewer leads are lost, more qualified prospects get into the funnel and your sales team can focus their attention on the most promising of them.

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Formulating an Effective Lead Generation Policy

It is a widely known fact that businesses try to employ diverse and innovative methods in marketing. The Internet has provided a promising platform for B2B lead scoring companies to reach out to larger audiences. And these companies leave no stone unturned to carve a niche for themselves in the market. However, not all companies succeed in this effort. Due to time-consuming procedures and inefficient strategies, marketing efforts often fail.

One of the most important goals of marketing campaigns is identifying potential customers. And this is also the most formidable challenge that businesses face. Lead Generation can be quite intimidating, if businesses are not equipped with the right tools. Several marketing automation solutions have therefore been introduced with the aim to help sales and marketing teams understand buying patterns of customers, and market demands. These solutions also pave the way for successful lead generation.

Tips for Lead Generation

• Studying Existing Customers & Competitors – To initiate an effective lead generation campaign it is a prerequisite to understand the needs of your prospective leads. Obtaining feedback from customers, who have used the product/service before, can help in this regard.

Online polls, surveys, focus groups, and reviews are other means of understanding prospects’ needs. Reviews provide a healthy picture of what competitors have to offer, and this helps in comparing and assessing products/services. Focus groups are existing customers who can provide positive feedback regarding the resolving capabilities of the product offered.

• Creating an Effective Campaign – Once the target audience has been identified, the business website can be used to communicate with them. A clear perspective of the product offered, its benefits, etc has to be provided. Businesses can leverage online opportunities such as blogs and article sites, which have been identified as two most popular ways to communicate with prospective leads. Sharing success stories and case studies are two other effective lead generation techniques. Prospects can also be nurtured with informative email messages and newsletters.

• Thought Leadership Strategies – Lead generation efforts receive a tremendous boost when opinions of industry experts are offered to prospects. This can effectively arouse curiosity and attract the attention of customers.

• Relevant Query Forms – It is important to ensure that the website contains relevant forms for enquiry. These forms should be easy to fill and should not have too many questions. Lengthy forms are time-consuming and can put-off prospects.

• Lead Nurturing Strategies - Once leads have been generated successfully, lead nurturing programs have to be initiated. This would involve sending out relevant, interesting information, whitepapers, case studies etc, to keep prospects engaged. This can ensure that a credible relationship is built with the prospects.

Lead generation is the gateway to a successful sales endeavor. A careful effort to build a loyal relationship with prospects can always ensure long-term benefits.

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